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Tuesday, 22 March 2011 12:30

Self-promotion. You're doing it wrong.

Over on Chris Randall's Analog Industries blog, he wrote up a frank and useful post on how to post your gear p*rn to YouTube. I won't take credit for inspiring the post but I did tweet a link to my video a week and CR hit me back with #2 (and ruminated out-loud about writing this). I mean, Chris has watched a shit-ton of these things so no doubt this post was in the making well before I sheepishly pushed my link live. But, man, was I guilty of trying to head off criticism by anticipating every possible negative thing someone might think while watching. Since my video isn't so much a gear demo as me composing a song on a hardware array I've been experimenting with (big nod to the micronaut live-in-studio videos), I was trying for a bit of finesse, not just showing cool presets I built or selling something. So especially my reflexive self-deprecation was doing me no favors. It isn't that I honestly believe that my gear & performance are all that crap. First,…

Saturday, 12 March 2011 10:55

More Tempest

As played by one of its developers. Nothing more to add other than it looks so sexy. via Synthtopia

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gear porn

Cat on Chair - Digital Lo-fi Live Experiment #1

MPC + DSI Evolver + MeeBlip + SQ Multi-trak + EH MemoryMan + Monotron Liner Notes: This is it, my very first YouTube upload as well as the first video of me playing my live beat-making setup. (By 'live' I mean, it's not connected to a computer and could theoretically set it up up anywhere I could plug in. The chances of me playing out in the near future remain small.)You might think I would use the occasion, such as it is, to put together and post something more polished. The mix is straight off the board into so a Yamaha Pocket-track —who knew that recording into a handheld digital recorder would sound so small? I'll figure out how to use my real converters for the next one. (Plus the audio/video sync being a few ms off; I'll get that sorted.) But you know what, I don't need to sweat it. I'll make another soon. This has my cat making an appearance towards the end other than just sleeping, so I'm keeping it. Gear nerd info. The tricked-out…

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Compression Analogy

How do you know the best settings for a compressor or limiter ? That’s a question I get asked all the time, especially in attended mastering sessions. And when I’m answering it, I almost always end up punching my fist into my hand. Read the Post at http://productionadvice.co.uk/compression-punchbag/

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Friday, 04 February 2011 10:22

Cool Sampling Video

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Fuck Yeah! Dave Smith Instruments & Roger Linn Design Unveil Tempest Analog Drum Machine

Holy crap, analog distortion, analog compression, analog (MIDI) delay, and analog stutter! And here I thought this had become vaporware. More info at Create Digital Music

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A Thought

To paraphrase something I heard somewhere a long time ago, 'Car crashes sound great but you can't tap your toe to 'em.'

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random thought

Sunday, 26 December 2010 11:06

In Response to Analog Industries Venom Leak

That's even more uninteresting than I first imaged. I don't doubt that it may have one or two tricks up its sleeve that on paper will give reviewers and gear rats something to chew on, but as others have said this is well-trod territory. But let's be honest, this shit isn't aimed at anyone here. It's produced to take up space at Mega-Lo Guitar Mart and MegaLoGuitarMart-dot-com as product bait for birthdays, cover bands and down-market teens. Right? I guess if one needed a new MIDI controller anyway, why not one that makes some fun sounds? But that's gotta be a small part of a crowded market. I would think Avid would want to keep the M-Audio moniker alive to shield their 'Pro' market from this sort of mass-market crap that is M-Audio's bread and butter and has become more pronounced as of recently. Haven't they always been a slightly less egregious, less crappy Behringer? Anyway, I don't want to be too much of hypocrite because there are a few M-Audio MIDI products I still use and have…